Three teachers reviewing Portland's happy hours. Like most teachers, we don't have a lot of money to throw around on fancy dinners, but that doesn't mean that we don't really, really want to. Happy hour gives us the opportunity to try new places and sample new foods without spending much cash.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Flatbread Community Oven - Bend, Oregon

Tiered pricing at Flatbread Community Oven makes this happy hour a FANTASTIC choice for dinner. The menu is long enough to please the whole family and the portions are big enough to make one stop (a very well-priced stop) enough to fill you up.

Happy Hour is not limited to the bar area, making the availability of seating seem somewhat endless. We were able to snag a booth and went to town making selections from the menu. Sharing a number of items between the four of us made it easy to sample the many flavors without looking like I couldn't decide what to order.

They have beer, wine, and community cocktails available at a discount during happy hour. It's not so common to see that all signature cocktails available on the menu are available at a discount. So often, it's one...or none. At Flatbread, you can order any of their cocktail offerings for $6 (down from eight).

At the table, we sampled cheesy flatbread, the Fontina Fonduta, a small chopped salad, and the margherita pizza. That's a lot of cheese and bread and bread and cheese, but sometimes that's just what you need (or want).

The chopped salad was chocked full of garden vegetables. There were zucchini chunks, mushrooms, tomatoes, cheese crumbles and a light vinaigrette. Almost every salad on the menu is available at a discounted price during happy hour. (It's like the whole menu is available for less!)

My favorite flavor while at Flatbread was the Margherita Pizza. A margherita pizza is always such a great choice when you want to keep things simple. The happy hour size is definitely smaller than the regular versions of the same, but with a salad (or another side) it is enough to make a full meal for sure.

There aren't any Flatbreads in the Portland area (yet), but they are available in Bend, Boise, and Salt Lake City. I'm hopeful that we'll see one soon enough...